Xtreme97

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Super lovely. The little railway building at the top middle of the screen is just uber Xophe charm, I'm in love with it.

Wow, completely unexpected return! Love the station building, that shade of brick

The shape of the turnaround is gorgeous, love the framing over the cliff and waterfall.

Finally coming around to a write-up for this. To be fully honest I wasn't expecting such a high score so thank you! I was hoping to beat 5Dave's NEDC high score of 85.77, so to blast past that to 90+ is very rewarding. I'm very grateful for all the feedback and love it's received, will go through a building timeline below for anyone interested in some behind the scenes.

Firstly, my initial ideas for the contest were a bit plain, angling toward a pirate island vibe. But shortly after I opened up the old notes app and started seeing which of my random thoughts from past months might suit the contest. I jumped at the chance to do something cartography related that I had jotted down (which in fact was more focused on Luis Borges' paragraph-short story On Exactitude In Science, which I kept in mind). On top of that, seeing the detailed path work at Epic Universe and having an affinity for the Island of Adventure design motifs led to the idea of a huge cartographic map as the framing device for a tropical island vibe (familiar ground!). The early stages were just testing out how I could achieve the map effect, particularly the compass symbol which kicked everything off. I worked in some of the cel-shaded objects too to represent islands, and had some more ideas about labelling them and charting oceans and seas etc, which didn't materialize in the final product.

 map_edge.png (442.08KB)
downloads: 42

 map_effects.png (51.69KB)
downloads: 47

Once I had the map base down, I began working on the coaster and the island's contents. DisneySea and the Fortress Explorations castle were the initial inspiration for this, and that park's identity is largely owed for the exploration/discovery setting that drove me toward the Italian theme. The main castle/fort is modelled on Scaligero Castle di Sirmione on Lake Garda, with its open walled bay and integration into the lakeside which I loved. I really wanted to take the gradient possibilities to their max as well, using the Liam Rock Wall texture, with the bay walls creeping up from darker at the water level to the plainer stone colour at the top. The bright teal of the water and the undersea landscaping was very attractive too, and led to the shallow reefs I added. I had a final image in mind for the map but my way is to build in order, working on the castle and docks first and then moving toward the coaster elements and waterfalls before building out the cove town on the other side of the map and filling out the big rock structure.

 map_halfway.png (949.39KB)
downloads: 56

While this wasn't the layout I had voted for in the poll, I found it super easy to build out interactions for and work into the landscaping with the waterfalls, rock arch and queue area. Fantastic layout, Pac! The coaster interaction and path work here is where my progress slowed down a bit I think, though mostly through my own procrastination and dread at the uplift required for the big rock structure to work.

The little town was initially conceived as a more fantastical lost city with big structures and leaning more into a fantasy setting. However, as I focused more on the Italian architecture of the castle and the more grounded theming, I pivoted to something more believable: a little village built into a naturally sheltered cove in the rocks and themed to a colourful Italian town like those in the Cinque Terre region such as Vernazza, and the film Luca. It ended up a bit more colourful than I first intended but I'm very pleased with the result and the implementation of curves in this area. The log flume was something I had hoped to integrate into the rocks and town nearer the start but ultimately became more of an afterthought than I wanted and it shows, given how hidden the drop is. I'm happy with the way it merges into the map edge however, giving me a nice use for some pieces I had built off map earlier.

The final weekend was definitely the biggest push and was a pretty exhausting stretch but worth it for the result. Easter weekend gave me the Friday off and I managed to build the entire town side and rock in those three days to finish out the map. This is the map as of the Thursday night before the deadline.

 map_lastweekend.png (1.27MB)
downloads: 54

All things considered this was among my better building processes. Once the theme and setting for the castle were determined I built that up quite quickly and despite a stretch of low progress I managed to pump out some of my favourite work. I definitely should have chosen a less brash music style, so I understand that complaint looking back on it lol. I do like Mystic Style (one of the OpenRCT2 styles too, so meant less work for me), but probably could have picked something gentler. Thanks also to Steve for providing feedback and keeping me motivated (the station would have been a mess without him convincing me to rework it lol). See if you can spot his cameo.

 

And lastly, shoutout to nin for the sick logo! Perfect fit for the map. I'm very glad the contest turned out to be such a success with so many great entries, well done everyone.

Wow, first of all big congrats are in order, well done on pipping me to the win! This entry feels deeply infused with emotion and personal reflection, and is a lovely merger of something more conceptually focused with an expert building technique. My initial reaction upon opening it and noticing the blacked out peeps and church building was to think it was themed to the rapture, and reminded me a lot of the show The Leftovers. After a deeper look and noticing the repeating couple it clicked for me and I began to see more in the scenes and connect with it emotionally. The theming feels collage-like, but that drives home the story of looking back through various memories. The foliage throughout is some of the best I've seen, super thick with the different trees and bushes without appearing chaotic. The stabs of pink/white/yellow flowers are superb. The sunset is a cool effect but the result sticks out as little messy given how cleanly made the rest of the map is. The music is also perhaps a bit mawkish for my taste (then again the music I chose was far too brash lol).